Attorney General Releases Report on Hate Crimes in State : Bias: Lungren’s office counts 672 incidents in the latter half of 1994. The statistics are conservative compared with those from other agencies.

In its first report on hate crimes in California, the state Department of Justice documented 672 bias-related incidents during the last six months of 1994.

Racial incidents made up the largest proportion of hate crimes, with blacks and whites the leading targets. The next largest category of complaints was tied to sexual orientation, followed by religion and then physical or mental disability.

The figures, released Tuesday by Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, are conservative compared with statistics issued by other agencies.

For instance, in Los Angeles County alone there were 776 hate crimes in 1994, according to the county Commission on Human Relations.

Ron Wakabayashi, the commission’s executive director, said the difference was probably a result of more established data gathering by his agency.

“I’m sure it’s a function of the reporting,” Wakabayashi said. “We’ve been doing the reporting for 16 years. I think we have a more mature system, more relations with different organizations.”

The commission also takes reports from community-based groups, while the Department of Justice numbers are entirely derived from law enforcement reports that are carefully reviewed before they are classified as hate crimes. Lungren’s office, for its part, said its hate crime statistics were complete.

Los Angeles County, California’s most populous county, reported 243 hate crimes to the state, more than any other county. Orange County reported 50.

The Orange County Human Relation Commission recorded 182 hate-related incidents and crimes in 1994.

Rusty Kennedy, the commission’s executive director, said he hoped the Justice Department study would lead to funding for programs that promote tolerance.

“It’s about time we put the public eye on the alarming numbers of hate crimes that are happening in our state,” he said.

In the past three years in Orange County, Kennedy said, the number of hate crimes and incidents has remained at about 180 a year. Although the numbers are not increasing, he said, “one hate crime is too many.”

The Justice Department document comes six years after legislation was passed mandating the collection of statewide hate crime statistics--a delay that has frustrated advocacy groups.

“We have been pushing for the attorney general to begin this data collection for some time now,” said Tzivia Schwartz, western states counsel for the Anti-Defamation League. “We are thrilled it’s finally happening but we are concerned it took so long.”

Lungren, speaking at a Los Angeles news conference, attributed the delay to a lack of funding.

Of the 672 hate crimes documented by the state, 72.5% were racially motivated, nearly 18% were linked to sexual orientation and 9.5% to religion.

Assaults made up the greatest proportion of incidents (43.5%), followed by threats and intimidation (29%) and vandalism (19%). There were two murders.

Slightly more than a third of the hate crimes occurred at residences and about 30% took place on streets or in alleys.

Schwartz said that generally, blacks, gay men and Jews are the prime targets of hate crimes, a pattern that was reflected in the California statistics. The one exception was the number of anti-white incidents, 127, which made whites the second-leading target of racially motivated crimes, after blacks, with 184 incidents.

“Serious numbers of incidents are occurring across racial lines,” Schwartz said. “I think it’s time to stop and look at what we’re doing to each other.”

The high proportion of assaults mirrored a trend to more violent confrontations, she added. Whereas vandalism and phone harassment used to be typical, in recent years “it’s been much more in your face, more violent.”

Times staff writer Tina Nguyen contributed to this story.